Samajwadi Party minister says he lost due to Congress

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party leader and minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government Ravidas Mehrotra, who lost to the BJP candidate in Lucknow Central seat, today said he would have won the election, but for the Congress.

"After I had filed my nomination, the Congress candidate also filed his nomination papers. I lost due to the Congress. Had the Congress candidate withdrawn, I would have won," he told PTI.

"If a party's candidate wins from the state capital, a positive message goes out in the entire state. The Congress should have asked its nominee to withdraw," he said.

Asked about his views on the SP-Congress alliance, Mehrotra said he would put forth his views in the party forum.

Mehrotra lost to BJP's Brijesh Pathak by a margin of 5,094 votes.

While Brijesh secured 78,400 votes, Mehrotra polled 73,306, while BSP's Rajeev Srivastava finished a distant third with 24,313 votes and Congress's Abdul Maroof Khan got 12,921 votes only.